This project was part of a five-month collaboration with arts and technology collective Seeper, based in London. Immersion aimed at building and evaluating an immersive multi-sensory environment for children with educational disabilities.
As part of the collaboration I researched and examined how ASD affects people, to understand the main challenges faced by those with the condition. I applied social cognition and cognitive development theories to understand users’ requirement and to aid the design of the systems proposed for the immersive environment.
The project was released during a three-day workshop in Baskerville, a school for children with special needs in Birmingham, where around 100 people took part. During this time I also ran an ethnographic study observing the children’s reaction to the systems proposed. The multi-sensory systems placed in the school allowed students to use different senses such as touch, vision and sound. We observed that the immersive experience created a comfortable autistic-friendly environment, which contributed to students’ relaxation and facilitated social interaction.
Pictures of the immersive multi-sensory environment installed in Barskerville school for the three-day workshop.
